


And The Road Goes Ever On And On

by melliyna



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Gen, cm: family verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-01
Updated: 2010-02-01
Packaged: 2017-10-06 22:31:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/58419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melliyna/pseuds/melliyna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Set in the CM kid-verse that was originally started <a href="http://melliyna.livejournal.com/366851.html">with this fic</a> and originally written for the <a href="http://melliyna.livejournal.com/385970.html?nc=41">CM Gen-A-Thon II</a>. This is a future fic(let)</p>
    </blockquote>





	And The Road Goes Ever On And On

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the CM kid-verse that was originally started [with this fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/366851.html) and originally written for the [CM Gen-A-Thon II](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/385970.html?nc=41). This is a future fic(let)

  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[fandom: criminal minds](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fandom:+criminal+minds), [fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/fic), [genre: gen](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/genre:+gen), [kid-verse-au](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/kid-verse-au), [rating: pg](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/tag/rating:+pg)  
  
---|---  
  
_**[Ficlet: Criminal Minds: And The Road Goes Ever On And On]**_  
**Title:** And The Road Goes Ever On And On  
**Author:** [](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/profile)[**melliyna**](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/)  
**Fandoms:** Criminal Minds  
**Pairings:** Background Rossi/Hotch   
**Rating:** PG  
**Disclaimer:** Criminal Minds, the concept and the characters belong to their creator, CBS and their respective actors not me. I make no money or profit from this piece of writing.  
**Author's Note:** Set in the CM kid-verse that was originally started [with this fic](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/366851.html) and originally written for the [CM Gen-A-Thon II](http://melliyna.livejournal.com/385970.html?nc=41). This is a future fic(let)  
**Dedication:** For [](http://eternal-sadist.livejournal.com/profile)[**eternal_sadist**](http://eternal-sadist.livejournal.com/) with love.

When Spencer chatters, Emily knows she and Pops are the only ones who can distract him in to quietness. It's always been that way; ever since he arrived home all curls and tiny fingers that liked to hold on to hers when she was reading. He's thirteen years old now, gangly limbed, awkward but in school on an accelerated learning program that allows him to be challenged but to be a kid.

Emily Hotchner is eighteen and about to leave for college, in a flurry of boxes, having to pack the car again (because trying work out how to fit the pieces of your life in to boxes is tricky, even with a older brother who has done it so many times now he's an old hand, out there in the world) and laughing over old memories as you do it.

"Em, how and when did you get so tall?" That had been Dad, with a wry look on his face, as Pops had teased him about the seven stages of grief, as he helped Emily with the packing. She knew she'd always have her room to come home to, whenever she needed it. Its knowing that it's going to recede further away that's hard.

No more lazy Sunday mornings in which everyone makes pancakes and a huge mess or going to get Chinese food with Pops or Dad insisting on coming home for every Glee club performance. No more ridiculously late night talks with Pen in between box-set marathons or chatting to JJ when she got home from school. She's not just going to be able to walk in on Spencer thumbing through her bookshelves and tease him for being a human garbage disposal when it comes to food.

They've been reading together (or rereading - it's the family nerd gene inheritance, along with Terry Pratchett, singing on long car trips and 'hide behind the sofa during Doctor Who') to each other and together for a long time and she swears, she's going to read Spencer the first chapter of The Hobbit over the phone, even if her room-mate does laugh at her for it.

-

Morgan of course comes to help her move in. Emily had protested that it was too much – in between his own college graduation and the GRE's but he'd laughed it off with a "I believe this is what good big brothers do" and she's not so secretly glad that she's got someone else who doesn't mind emails about the best storage methods or 'what to do if your room-mate is decidedly evil' and 'in the ratio of furniture to books, should the balance really be in favour of the books?'

She teases him about how he'd lived entirely on Ramen noodles that first six weeks. Then of course, Pops had talked to Dad, who had sent him a care package. And then an underlined letter about the cook book he'd been sent off to college with, which Morgan had passed on to her. Looking at it later in her dorm room she finds Dad's notes to Morgan and it's strangely comforting because if there's anything that makes you think of Dad it's the way he can he even colour code his notes in a cook book.

-

When Dad first came along, she'd been a little scared of him but felt strangely at ease too. It makes her laugh later when he relates that he may well have been more unsure than she and her siblings were – about parenting, about his abilities, whether he could do this but being determined that he would do it, once committed. Because when Dad promises something, he delivers.

There was the Great Birthday Cake Incident on Emily's tenth birthday in which he'd determinedly managed to get her a cake when the place they'd ordered it from had screwed up and made the wrong one (she had a sneaking suspicion that he may have commandeered the kitchen but it's never been confirmed and Pop's just has a rare fit of laughter when the subject comes up), how he'd always been at her concerts with his mind on them.

Dad is present. Dad Gideon was someone who loved her but couldn't be there because it hurt too much. She's still processing what that means, whether she can ever understand but Emily does know this – that Dave is her parent. After all, he is the one giving her a look and asking "Does Em really need to take all her books" as they move in to her dorm.

She's going to miss Dad (even his approach to his kids starting to date!)

-  
The rest of the family had come along in the end, though Pops had quietly asked her if she was sure she wanted them all to come. They'd both taken a moment to talk near the end, when everyone was getting too overwhelming and one of the parents had given them all a filthy look. When it came to this parent, Emily knew that you could count on him to give you space and a shoulder to cry on, as necessary because somehow Pops had always understood and she knows it's going to be hard leaving his quiet presence behind because it's comfort, hugs and the way they have of being able to be companionably silent together for long periods of time in ways that bewilder most of the rest of the family.

She's going to miss him and she's glad he knows that.


End file.
